That thick pink sludge that looks like a thick ribbon of candy is actually the fillings of a chicken nugget. Still hungry?
You’ve heard about the plastic cheese, the burger that looks like it was preserved with phemaldehyde, the fries cooked in beef fat, but you probably haven’t heard the one about chicken nuggets made from sludge — well you actually may have if you watched the first episode of Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution — so you probably haven’t heard this one.
What the hell is in this sludge you ask? That is a mighty fine question with a complicated answer—a lot of things.
Many chicken nuggets contain less than 50% meat leaving the majority of the nugget to be comprised of skin and carcass. Yes, carcass.
Mechanically recovered meat is a process by which the carcass is pushed through a giant tea-bag like screen which produces a slurry of protein which is then bound back together with other proteins, polyphosphates, and gums.
If you are lucky, that is all are you eating. If you are unlucky, then the protein mush also includes recycled pet food, pig and cattle proteins, and banned carcinogenic antibiotics—all of which have been found by authorities.
What next? The sludge is then washed in ammonia to kill bacteria, then comes the flavoring in the form of dextrose, lactose, and meat pulp. Lastly, the blob is dyed a pretty color pink.
Add in some emulsifier and batter, turn on the oven to 350 and voila chicken nuggets—well– nuggets.
October 05, 2010 at 10:46 am, Vrils said:
wow thats just crazy
October 07, 2010 at 2:50 pm, Tsuper said:
Joe,
Yes — it's true. Poultry is sometimes mechanically separated and when it is, the resulting product is called mechanically separated poultry (MSP). It is NOT true, however, that this is how chicken nuggets are commonly made. The vast majority do not contain MSP. Nuggets are usually made from pieces of white meat and sometimes from a combination of white and dark meat.
Some processed meat products, like hot dogs and lunch meat, do contain MSP and this is stated on the ingredient label by law. This process is regulated and inspected by USDA, and if used, is included in the ingredient statement.
Even Snopes.com has an entry about the claims in this piece. Anyone who took the time to read this post should also visit http://bit.ly/b7zg2t and http://bit.ly/cSALAM for the facts.
Using technologies like this helps prevent the waste food, plain and simple. It is just a more technolgoical and economical way of cutting the remaining chicken meat off of the bone.
Tom Super, American Meat Institute, Washington, DC
November 05, 2010 at 11:32 pm, Joe Friday said:
I followed your links Tom, and then I went a step further. The second link is hogwash (see what I did there?) because Meatsafety.org is a promotional group shilling for the meat packing industry, NOT a consumer safety group. I have the relevant link. http://www.meatami.com/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/3368
The second one, from snopes.com, IS informative. Good news folks, McDonalds stopped using MSP in 2003 in nuggets.
April 18, 2011 at 5:51 pm, Cherod70 said:
Preventing wast by adding amonia, you are incseane if you think this is at all a good idea? I think you need to check your defintion of food!!
October 14, 2010 at 7:37 pm, Our McRib Love Affair Has to Be Destroyed | Death and Taxes said:
[...] advanced taste factory, called the Test Kitchen, by the same food scientist who devised the chicken nugget, Chef Rene Arend. And like those globules of mechanically separated chicken, this patty comes from [...]
October 15, 2010 at 2:46 pm, Happy Meal Project Rounds Out 2010 As The Worst Public Relations Year For McDonald’s Ever | Death and Taxes said:
[...] there’s been a recent media flurry over the company and their food, most notably over how uncooked chicken nuggets look frighteningly like cotton candy and about the resurrection of the almighty McRib, or [...]
November 05, 2010 at 11:33 pm, Joe Friday said:
http://www.meatami.com/ht/display/ArticleDetails/i/3368
February 13, 2012 at 1:02 pm, Ingrey Coumes said:
this seems to be bothering my kids.
February 13, 2012 at 2:49 pm, Mary Katie Stammetti said:
must go throw up now…ewwww. How is this passable for people food?
February 13, 2012 at 1:02 pm, Ingrey Coumes said:
this seems to be bothering my kids.
March 06, 2012 at 3:43 pm, Curtis Moyer said:
Add some bbq sause and it's all good!
March 10, 2012 at 6:32 am, Akhila Ravi said:
yikes..